I am often puzzled by modern life.

aha, but imagine all the interesting tidbits you could hear through the grape vine...

 

What exactly is meant by an "ethically" produced phone ?

Due to an advance in GM, a Grape vine minus it's Gossip gene is currently under testing

 

Ethically produced is to do with where they get the raw materials and the fact that parts are replaceable easily. These phones don't have to be traded in when the battery gets less efficient. One would probably last me for life.

I agree £499 seems a lot, @pete, but if it lasted 3 times as long as a cheaper phone, it wouldn't be more expensive over time. Plus, you would be supporting a small company trying to go against the grain. That's worth something, IMV.

 

@ViewAhead ,Well I partly see the point, but how much are the replacement parts, can you fit them yourself, will it become very outdated very quickly, like most things these days.

I can see repair and mend in may items can be good, but technology items tend to get obsolete or at best not performing as well as the newer stuff very quickly.

One of the reasons that puts me off buying an electric car, it will be old clunky scrap in 5yrs.

 

I don't know how much parts cost, but the whole phone is designed to be repaired by the user, with two screws to take the back off. Plus, they guarantee no obsolescence till 2033 at the earliest for the new model. Seven yrs is pretty good. Apple generally offers 5 from the date the product is withdrawn from production. Some Apple products are only produced for a yr. I think the shortest was 10 months from release to withdrawal, so you have to keep an eye on that when purchasing.

 

Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android

In answer to your qu, @pete, a new battery for a Fairphone is £35. Seems reasonable.

 

What's wrong with cheaper Samsungs like the A16 with 6 years updates and only cost £120? That will be my next one. I have the A13 and it does everything.

 

Nothing wrong with them. I am new to the world of smart phones and have had no contact with anything Android to date. My ignorance is almost total. Samsungs are TVs in my world.

 

I've had a few Samsungs over the years, but only on my second smart one.
Cant see a problem, they do everything I want them to but you can even pay stupid prices for Samsung ones if you want.

 

I got a Motoloa e13 for £30.00 then i put on £10 credit which was then trebale to £30 about 2 years ago
I only wanted a cheap phone but if i want i can use it for internet,phoning and texts if i want to, i don't use it much

 

I'd consider that as a blessing

Regarding smartphones, and other tech too, I can warmly recommend Amazon refurbished ones. The prices are very reasonable and the guarantees for the device and especially the common weakest link, the battery, are very good indeed.

With smartphones the catch is that you must have reasonably recent model to be able to use some very useful apps, and importantly, to get operating system (OS) updates to keep the phone safe.

Using a smartphone with outdated OS is like using a computer without firewall or virus defence. Open doors for bots sweeping around the interweb looking for low hanging fruit. Or so I'm told by wiser (and younger) people.

Going mainstream (iPhones etc opposed to smaller start ups) has the advantage that most useful things are compatible.

But then again, a teeny weeny Linux challenged Microsoft and is still around and even the go-to for governmental systems who need a back up in case the the Microsoft life suddenly ends.

Linux started in the students' common room when a smart young lad, Linus Torvalds, was bored and started to tinker around. Incidentally, he went to Uni with my sister. Name dropping, moi?

 

One of the reasons I enjoy an electric car, it is still working well, running smoothly and saving me money, 9 years after it was first bought...